Wines of Rioja

Friday 17 April 2009
Wines of Rioja

The second of our tutored tastings, this time led by Adam Dent. The first 10 wines were a tutored tasting of wines from the Rioja region. Then we had the first of our audience participation epilogues which was led by Mike Hinton.

1. Ondarre Cava Brut NV
Cava DO, £10
Clear pale gold with a restrained mousse. Lots of lemon, lime and bitterness on the palate but plenty of dirt, earth and mushrooms on the nose. Good length and well balanced... apart from leaving a funny taste in the mouth after about a minute.
In conclusion, not bad - particularly since I was unaware there was any Cava produced in Rioja prior to this.

2. CVNE Monopole Barrel-Fermented White Rioja
Rioja DOCa 2006, £8
A very pale lemon-green colour but with a surprisingly intense nose. Lots of nuts, peach and peanut. Light bodied and quite acidic. A little unbalanced.
As is quite common when confronted with a white rioja, the main thought is "meh".

3. Lopez de Heredia, Tondonia Blanco Reserva 1987
Rioja DOCa Reserva, 1987
In true crazy Rioja style, this 1987 is not far off being the current release! Medium gold with lots of wood (American oak). Smells sweet, maybe candied almonds? Dried apricots, vanilla, honeysuckly. Despite all these aromas the wine is totally dry. Full bodied and round with a soft mouthfeel. Medium acid, quite mineralic. Long.
This wine is quite strange but very good. Generated lots of discussion and split the room quite vehemently. Most definitely not a "meh" in sight!

4. Bodegas Domeco de jaruta, Vina Marro Vendimia Selleccionada 2005
Rioja DOCa "Semi-crianza", £10
Some wood, lots of red fruit (cherries). Some green notes and something herby (mint?) Dry, medium tannin but with the tannins being quite "grippy" and rough. On the palate the main notes are red fruits. Quite short.
Good, but not particularly complex and too short

5. Lopez de Heredia, Vina Cubillo 1997
Rioja DOCa Crianza, £15.50
Starting to be a quite noticeable garnet colour. Intense tobacco, some volatile acidity (but still at a low enough level that it adds complexity rather than ruining the wine), leather, herbs (cinnamon?) violets and smoke. As is probably clear from the list of aromas above this wine was developing some serious complexity. Medium body and acid, with tannins perhaps a little too light to be in balance with the acid. More fruit on the nose than on the palate --> drink up. Which I did gladly. This was good but you wouldn't want to keep it any longer.

6. Ondarre Graciano 2005
Rioja DOCa, £11
Deep purple colour - this wine looks very young. The main tasting note I get from this wine is banoffee pie and I was so struck by the applicability of this tasting note that I struggled to get anything more sensible written down about it. To explain that rather weird tasting note I wouls point out the banana, sweet ripe fruit and nutty characters that were all pretty intense. High tannins but well structured, this wine had plenty of fruit and acid on the palate and was very young. Would benefit from a little age.

7. Ondarre, Major de Ondarre 2004
Rioja DOCa Reserva, £10.50
Not very good.

8. Campo Viejo Gran Reserva 2002
Rioja DOCa Gran Reserva, £14
Lots of oak. Rather 1-dimensional. A serious contrast to the following wine...

9. Campo Viejo, Marques de Villamagna Gran Reserva 1975
Rioja DOCa Gran Reserva, £25
This wine was the colour of a tawny port. Intense aromas - violets, sweet cherry, wet dog (amazing how some aromas coming from a good old wine can sound pretty bizarre) and nuts. Some volatile acidity (again in a good way) and leather and cinnamon. This wine was complex! Intense flavour and medium bodied on the palate. There was more noticeable wood and cigar notes on the palate than on the nose. This is a fantastic wine. It is interesting to see what type of wine Campo Viejo used to make. A generous person might put the difference between #8 and #9 down to vintage variation. A slightly more cynical person might attribute it to larger production.

10. Lopez de Heredia, Bosconia Gran Reserva 1981
Rioja DOCa Gran Reserva, £43
The colour of a 10-year old tawny port. Lots of leather and smoke on the nose. The palate is surprisingly subdued. Medium acid, medium-low tannin. Lots of secondary and tertiary notes. Plenty of complexity, "barnyard", earthy, mushrooms. The flavour of the wine is sadly too short - it fades to just being acidity very quickly.
Quite an interesting wine this. Had the tasting not included #9 this would have been the most interesting wine of the night. I personally preferred the previous wine to this one; however, this final wine generated by far the most discussion of any of the wines this evening with others finding it their favourite wine.

Epilogue
The first of what will hopefully be many such "audience participation" endings to Bacchus Vintage tastings. At the end of the previous tasting we asked if there was anyone who is interested in presenting a couple of wines to the group at the end of a tasting. It's a great way to get some experience of presenting wines to the group without having to organise an entire tasting yourself.

This first one was led by Mike Hinton and the two wines he presented were two of the Rupert and Rothschild wines from South Africa.

11. Rupert and Rothschild Classique 2005
Franschoeck, Paarl, South Africa, £12
A deep ruby colour. Intense nose of red cherries (but bitter and perhaps slightly unripe cherries), vanilla and some leafy notes. Quite dusty on the palate with plenty of oak showing through. The fruit notes on the palate are definitely on the black-fruit side rather than red fruit. High acid and tannin and medium-high bodied. Well balanced. Very young - particularly in comparison to the previous ancient rioja!

12. Rupert and Rothschild, Baron Edmund 2004
Franschoeck, Paarl, South Africa, £26
Opaque and ruby with slight hints of garnet coming through on the rim. Smoky, tarry nose with intese black fruits. Intense, full-bodied and brooding with the tar and black fruit really coming through on the palate also. High tannin. Very extracted. The flavour lasts for a long time. Again, very young and will probably benefit more from age than the previous wine.
This wine was very good and a serious step up from the (perfectly acceptable) Classique.